Nindo of the Force 3: Jinchuriki

by Michael The-Zorch Haney

Beginning four years after the Battle of Naboo, the story covers six years of Naruto's life in the galaxy as Mos Sukui establishes its reputation throughout the Outer Rim. With the help of the Jedi, he also begins to gain an understanding of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and perhaps forms a friendship with the creature. Meanwhile, dark forces conspire to plunge the galaxy into war.

Disclaimer

All characters under copyright in this derivative work are used according to Fair Use, as described in Sections 107-118 of the US Copyright Act of 1971. This derivative work is offered as-is for free, no copyright infringement was intended in the making of this derivative work. All copyrighted characters are the property of their respective companies. This derivative work is under Creative Commons Sharealike Noncommercial Unported License 3.0.

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Author's Notes: Sorry this is late, I've been very upset over the current state of Star Wars under Woke Disney. I've also been busy with my YouTube channel. Now that Book 2 is done, it is time to move on to Book 3. Also, if you're a fan of Cad Bane and Hando Ohnaka, you're going to like this arc in the series. They don't appear in this chapter, but they will grace us with their presence soon. This book covers 6 years of Naruto's life leading up to the start of the Clone Wars. Book 4 and 5 will take place during the early half and later half of the war.

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Michael "TheZorch" Haney

Nindo of the Force

Book 3

Jinchuriki

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Mother Talzin awoke suddenly, a dark dream disturbing her sleep. Sitting up, she reached out with the Force and founding the comforting presence of her fellow Nightsisters. She climbed out of bed and padded on bare feet to a small ritual alcove carved into the stone wall of her chambers. From a ornate ceramic carafe she poured water into a small cauldron and into this she poured a small amount of green liquid from a tiny bottle. The water took on a green hue and began to glow, a greenish mist rose into the air.

"Show me again," she whispered and passed her hand through the green mist.

In the still green water a vision took shape, a vision of two paths. One lead to the destruction of the Nightsisters by the hands of an army of droids and a mechanical monster with four arms. The other found the Nightsisters aligned with a power unlike any Mother Talzin had ever seen. That power was in the hands of a male, a boy of perhaps 16 or 17 years of age, but he was not a Nightbrother. He was human she guessed, had blonde spiky hair, had strange amphibian like eyes, he carried twin lightsabers, yet he was neither Jedi nor Sith. He was something else, something beyond her knowledge, and towering over him was a great red beast with many tails radiating overwhelming power. The beast and boy acted as one, sweeping away any darkness that stood before them. Behind them stood a multitude, her sisters were among them. Finally, the vision faded, the water turned clear again, and the green mist dispersed.

The vision wasn't done yet, words drifted into her mind in the great void, "Naruto... Jinchuriki."

"Mother Talzin," she was so caught up it the vision she didn't hear one of her fellow sisters enter her chambers.

"Is anything wrong, I felt a disturbance from your chambers." said the young nightsister.

Mother Talzin shook her head, "I had the dream again, the vision was clearer this time." She turned to regard the young nightsister standing there in her sleeping robes and holding a small lantern in one hand for light.

"What did you see?" the nightsister asked.

"Our destiny," Talzin replied. "A great conflict is coming, we will need to choose a side. If we choose unwisely, we will be destroyed."

"What do we do?" the nightsister asked.

Talzin told her, "We must wait, wait for the one who will master a great power from within. When he comes, we must ally ourselves with him."

The nightsister was shocked, "Him? A male?"

Talzin nodded, "A male unlike any other, only by his side shall we weather the storm to come."

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Chapter One

Four Years Later

Naruto's blaster fire zeroed in on his target. Mos Sukui had known relative peace for the past few years, but for two weeks now, unknown ships have begun harassing trading vessels coming and going to the rapidly growing settlement. The blaster bolts from Naruto's small fighter slammed into his target. The snub-nosed craft, an air car of some kind, lost one of its wings and fell from the sky like a wounded bird. Another air car came around to his six o'clock, but when it opened fire, Naruto wasn't there. The pilot didn't have time to dodge when another fighter piloted by Enzo Biggs of Mos Sukui security blew him out of the sky.

"That's the last one, boss," came Enzo's voice over the com.

Naruto did a quick look around in his canopy, "Yeah, looks like the rest ran away." All in all, there had been ten attackers this time, he shot down three and Enzo got four.

"Naboo transport NZ1337," Naruto switched com channels. "This is Fox Zero-One, what's your status?" The sleek, silver ship resembled the one that had limped into Mos Sukui two years ago, carrying Queen Amidala. This one was a wider cargo variant carrying plasma from Naboo, and would return carrying the ore vital to maintaining the plasma industry.

"Fox Zero-One, our status is good," came the reply. "No damage to report, that was some mighty fine flying, you two." Naruto almost blushed, he'd been putting in more time in the simulator and familiarizing himself with these new fighters they'd just recently purchased. They were older ships but were still affective. He was even learning how to do some of his own maintenance, but he would never be on Anakin's level, and that was ok.

"Thank you," he replied. "We'll escort you the rest of the way to to the star port, so you can rest assured if those pirates come back, they'll regret it."

"Good to know," the Nubian pilot answered back. "Naboo transport out."

Naruto switched back to security coms, "Enzo, we'll escort them the rest of the way in case those guys come back."

"Sure thing, boss," came Enzo's reply. The young security officer came up on Naruto's wing. He was flying the same older, almost outdated fighter. These were the predecessor to the HH-87 Starhopper which were preferred by the Hutts and Zygerrian slavers. Engineers at Mos Sukui modified these craft to look less aggressive and gave them the white and gold color scheme from the independent colony's official flag.

"I figured once we started serious trade we'd attract some attention, but I wasn't expecting raids of this level to start so soon." he added. They'd been doing their best to stay under the Hutt's radar, once they were recognized as independent that changed, but there were no indications that the crime lords considered them a serious threat. It wasn't like they were trading in spice or weapons, they weren't in competition with the Hutts at all.

Naruto replied, "We made somebody mad. We'll probably have to start expanding our trade route patrols, I'll talk to ero-sensei about it."

The increase in income from their dealings with Naboo meant they could hire on more security forces. Currently, Mos Sukui had a staff of around 200 security officers, but they realistically needed to expand that to 400. The "village" in two years expanded to become a small city. The original settlement was carved out of the walls of the canyons that had been excavated by a mining company thousands of years ago. Now, those canyon walls were etched out into tiered avenues. They still had room to expand, but the hollowed out center of the great plateau which served as protective walls for the settlement was getting crowded. So much so that the star port had to be moved from the top of the plateau to platforms hung from the outer walls of the towering mountain. This served to make the plateau look like a mushroom growing out of the sands of the great Dune Sea.

After landing, Naruto left his craft in the hands of the ground technicians and went straight to Jiyukage Tower. The structure was still the same as it had been two years ago. It had a few extra com dishes on the roof, but it was still the same. Everything else around it was very different. Originally, there had been a lot of room between the tower and the growing settlement. Now the tower was surrounded by buildings resembling those from Mos Espa. Many of these were shops, the city now had a bustling marketplace, and the rest were homes.

Naruto was immediately recognized by residents of the city. He found himself greeted by happy smiles and friendly greetings, a radical change from what he experienced back home in Konoha. Here, the people of Mos Sukui considered him a hero. Very few of them knew about the Nine-Tails, only a handful knew the truth, but to them, it didn't matter. Naruto was the reason why they were free, why they were no longer wallowing in crippling poverty and debt. Much of that had to do with the city's new prosperity and the policies enacted by Jiraiya and his council of advisors. Those advisors were Shmi and Cliegg Lars who married a year and half ago, and Eton Voos a Rodian with a keen mind for business and was a generally good-hearted person.

Jiyukage Tower was busier than usual these days. Plans for new construction had to be approved by the engineering team, who made sure any new additions to the city followed strict safety guidelines. No dangerous haphazard structures were allowed in the city. The rest were conducting other official business. Jiraiya liked keeping red tape at a minimum, so the city's bureaucracy was very efficient, worked quickly, and was fair. Mos Sukui operated like a well tuned machine.

Naruto scaled the walls of the tower in his usual fashion and entered Jiraiya's office through a conveniently open window. The office was much less spartan than it had been two years ago. The Toad Sannin had collected trinkets from all over the galaxy, which decorated shelves and display cabinets along the walls. Jiraiya's desk was situated near a bank of windows, similar to the Hokage's office back in Konoha. In front of that sat two couches separated by a table upon which sat a holo projector for communications. Unlike Tsunade's desk, Jiraiya's wasn't piled up with papers, all of the Jiyukage's business was done electronically via his private data terminal. JayTwo walked around the room with a duster in hand, the ancient protocol droid swept gently at any piles of dust it found on the shelves.

"Hey, JayTwo," Naruto called. "Where's ero-sensei?" They'd found the ancient droid on a ship hidden in the deserts of Wind Country. That same ship, the Jade Falcon, was now used for when Jiraiya had to leave Tatooine on official business as the Jiyukage. They'd spent a considerable amount of money repairing and upgrading the outdated Dynamic-class freighter. Naruto has his own private craft for official business, a modified Taylander shuttle with improved shields and a small external docking socket for his fighter.

"In his private suite, Master Naruto," the droid replied.

Jiraiya's private suite was just below the office level and took up half the entire floor. The other half was Naruto's own private quarters, which were substantially more spacious than the modest apartment he had in Konoha. Access to the floor was via the main turbolift but required a security cylinder to stop at that floor. Naruto took the turbolift down to that level and let himself into Jiraiya's suite.

He found the Toad Sannin enjoying a bowl of salad in his dining alcove. "You look upset," the old man observed the look on his face.

"Me and Enzo just fought off another pirate attack over the Dune Sea," Naruto told him.

Jiraiya frowned, "Those are becoming more frequent of late. I'm going to have to put out some feelers, see who might be responsible."

Naruto volunteered, "I could snoop around Mos Eisley, see what I can turn up, ero-sensei." Jiraiya vehemently shook his head.

"No," he said. "I need elsewhere." He picked up a data pad and handed it to Naruto. The young shinobi switched it on and watched the aurebesh scroll down the screen.

"A mission?" his eyes lit up. It had been some time since he'd been on a real mission. Jiraiya had put the word out that Mos Sukui was accepting requests for jobs, excluding anything illegal like smuggling. There wasn't much work on Tatooine that didn't involve something very illegal, so Jiraiya relied on Naboo to help get the word out. Most people on Tatooine by now knew about Mos Sukui, and Naruto had a well established reputation as a merc who fights for the little people, and he was nobody to mess with. Out in the greater galaxy, they were relatively unknown. To get more jobs, they had to build a reputation, so the jobs were trickling in slowly.

"This one was commissioned by Padme herself," Jiraiya explained. That peaked Naruto's interest, it had been a while since he'd spent some time with her. She would occasionally invite him to state dinners at the palace, or private dinners with her family. Their relationship was more than just friendship, they were like siblings.

"A rescue mission," Naruto read the mission text.

Jiraiya nodded, "Padme wasn't to give you the particulars in person. For some reason, she didn't want to relay the details over the holonet, which means someone with high political or financial standing is involved."

"Some bigwig, huh?" Naruto surmised.

"Since she asked for you specifically, it means this is something she's not willing to entrust to anyone else." Jiraiya added.

Naruto nodded, "Meaning it's dangerous." He knew Padme well, if she was asking for him for this job then it had to be serious.

"Not just that," Jiraiya interjected. "She could have easily called on the Jedi, but she didn't. That means this is either something very sensitive, or very personal."

"Then, I'll go straight to Naboo today." Naruto said and turned for the door.

Jiraiya called after him, "Take Deefour with you, just in case." Naruto nodded before leaping out the window and running down the tower's outer wall. Deefour was D4E2, formerly an IG model assassin droid, reprogrammed and retooled for engineering work. He still had his combat algorithms, so he was good in a fire fight. Deefour worked in the repair hanger, the same one where Anakin serviced the Noobian transport four years ago. The droid, technically, belonged to him. He was the one who found it and paid to get it repaired and reprogrammed. He just let Deefour work at the hanger to give him something to do when not traveling with him or Jiraiya.

"Good afternoon, Naruto." Deefour greeted him. The droid was rebuilding an engine for a small air car when Naruto found him. Multiple manipulator arms extended out from the droid's slender frame. Each one was tipped with a different tool, making it almost as versatile as an astromech droid.

"Got a mission," Naruto told him. "We gotta get going, Deefour." Deefour retracted his tool arms and followed Naruto to the starport. In the four years since the Battle of Naboo, Naruto had acquired his own person ship. The Taylander shuttle which served has his personal craft had the passenger seats removed, and the space was converted into a few bunks and a common area where he could make meals on extended trips. The cargo bay had been modified with a ramp to house his speeder bike. Weapons were added to the ship, guns which could be used by the pilot and a top mounted turret for a second gunner. The usual white and blue color scheme had been replaced by black and orange. Naruto called it the Iruka Flier in honor of his old sensei. It was a home away from the home.

"So, where are we headed?" the droid asked as Naruto prepped the ship for flight. The young ninja slipped into the pilot seat, and Deefour took the co-pilot seat next to him. It had a data jack so he could patch into the ship's systems and control the top turret.

"Naboo," Naruto explained as the ship's engines roared to life. "Gotta go see Padme about the details, but it sounds serious."

The droid tapped contacts on his console, bringing scanning instruments, shields, and weapon systems online. "I hope it won't be like the last mission, I don't like gundarks." The droid actually shuddered at the thought.

"No promises," Naruto replied and launched the Iruka Flier into the air.

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To be continued...